A Polish lorry driver has been sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison after border officers discovered 90kg of cocaine hidden inside a legitimate delivery of Kim Kardashian's Skims clothing brand at a UK port.
According to the BBC, Jakub Konkel was stopped at Harwich International Port in Essex on 4 September while driving a truck loaded with 28 pallets of underwear and clothing. Officers grew suspicious of how he was handling the vehicle and ordered an X-ray scan. The scan revealed that the rear trailer doors had been specially adapted to conceal 90 individually wrapped packages of cocaine worth £7.2 million.
Konkel collected the drugs from an industrial estate in Belgium before driving through the Netherlands to board a ferry to the UK. He was paid 4,500 euros for the job.
At Chelmsford Crown Court Judge Richard Wilkin told Konkel that his role "was not peripheral or limited" and described it as significant within a large-scale commercial operation. Konkel wept in the dock as the sentence was read out. He had previously admitted to smuggling Class A drugs.
Investigators also found a mobile phone inside the vehicle that had been programmed to automatically delete all its data after 18 hours. The phone was linked to the drugs supply network.
Paul Orchard of the National Crime Agency said organised crime groups routinely use drivers to move drugs hidden within entirely legitimate cargo. "The detection and investigation have removed a significant amount of cocaine whose profits are lost to the crime group behind the smuggling attempt," he said.
The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs along with Konkel's truck and mobile phone. Konkel will be deported back to Poland after completing his sentence.
The case highlights how criminal networks exploit legal commercial supply chains to move narcotics across borders. Skims as a brand had no involvement in or knowledge of the smuggling operation.
